The new BMW 3-Series Sedan, codenamed F30 is almost finished and as a result, we’re seeing more and more prototype models with less camouflage making their appearance on the road or in this case, testing on the Nürburgring circuit in Germany.
It doesn’t come to much of a surprise that the F30 remains close to the current model in terms of design, knowing that the 3-Series has been the backbone of BMW’s success over the years.
The most obvious changes take place up front as the F30 adopts BMW’s new family face as seen on the 5-Series and more recently on the 1-Series hatchback, with larger double kidneys and a less complicated design for the headlamps.
The design of the F30 isn’t really revolutionary, but there’s many changes under the hood as the next 3-Series will adopt BMW’s newly launched range of four-cylinder turbocharged engines.
The lineup will include a 1.6-liter unit delivering around 136HP in the 316i and 170-horsepower in the 318i, and a larger displacement 2.0-liter engine, but all these are depending of the market. BMW recently added the 2.0-liter unit to the 5-Series range with the 520i (184HP) and the 528i (245HP).
A turbocharged 3.0-liter straight-six with an estimated 313-horses will sit atop of the range until the presentation of the M3 which is rumored to drop the current naturally aspirated V8 in favor of a newly-developed force-fed inline-six churning out more than 400 ponies.
A variety of 2.0-liter inline-four and 3.0-liter inline-six turbocharged diesel engines will also be on offer while BMW has confirmed the development of a hybrid version.
Buyers will have the option of manual, automatic, and dual-clutch automatic transmissions (depending on the engine) as well as rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive versions.
Source: Carscoop